Featured Author – L. Darby Gibbs (Elldee)

I love this Pay It Forward author features because it allows me to virtually meet authors from around the world. Today I’m introducing you to a 1960’s born southern east coaster woman, L. Darby Gibbs (aka Elldee), but has shared the same amount of time on both coasts. Gibbs is just as likely to pronounce “route” to rhyme with “root” as often as rhyme with “rout.” This dichotomy of accents catches the ear of her students on a regular basis as she is a teacher of English and creative writing at the high school level. 

Gibbs mainly writes science fiction, but is known to thrash out a contemporary poem or short story on occasion as well. She lives with her husband, a practical inventor, an adventurous daughter who doubles as her first reader, and two dogs in a 1920's house that interrupts her writing routinely as it is always in need of remodel. Gibbs has two books currently published in e-book format at Smashwords. She has been published since July of 2011, and is currently working on the second book in her series Students of Jump.

In Times Passed Synopsis

Take one time-jumping Nerg box and add three best friends, one self-aware computer and a leap into the past of more than 200 years, and you are bound to have a little trouble.

Idea for writing In Times Passed

Gibbs worked at a factory and was a product grader. She would pull off the line anything that didn't meet quality requirements. Doesn't take much thought or intelligence, just good automaton-like reflexes. She would listen to music, daydream, write letters in her head while her eyes registered flaws and her hands reached out and grabbed, flipped and dropped the item into the correct bin based on the type of flaw. Then a song came on the radio by Kenny Rogers and the First Edition, "I just dropped in (to see what condition my condition was in)." As she listened, the story of a man who found a means to travel in time started playing out in her mind.  Gibbs liked the image of him "dropping in to see what condition [his] condition was in."

In Times Passed Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9rAZYoz024

Where to purchase book:  http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/77866

Gardens in the Cracks and Other Stories Synopsis

This book is an anthology of SciFi short stories.  The title story is Gardens in the Cracks and is about Marga Graber who has been living under the pandemic-inspired edicts of the desert planet Castoe all her life, following in her mother and grandmother’s footsteps. Her ravine farm has prospered. She enrolled her first son in the scrapper apprentice program as required by those same edicts and mourned her loss when he disappeared, presumed dead along with his mentor teamster. Now she must face again the placement of a second son in the program. It is one thing to intellectually know that the planet must raise its population and its production in order to contribute again to the Common Wealth planets, but returning the planet to full recognition as a contributing member after falling to mere colony status has costs that are felt much more personally.

Idea for writing Gardens in the Cracks

Gibbs had been writing several short stories and found that two of them Gardens in the Cracks and an included novella Scrapper together were nearly book length. So she looked through pieces I wrote that she thought could inhabit a book with them. They all deal with adjusting to the things that we struggle with in life: love, fear, challenge, and believing in our selves. 

Where to purchase book: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/177065

Why Did Gibbs Self-Publish?

She thinks she might be just a little bit of a control freak and that played a part in her decision to be an indie writer. She likes creating the whole package though she did get as much feedback as she could to make it a good package that she finally uploaded. She wrote the first drafts of her books several years ago and just put them away assuming that publication was a pipe dream. And then e-publishing arrived, and she thought she would dig them out and see if they had much to say for themselves. Clearly redrafting was needed, and she could see where the stories should take some new turns as well.  It’s only been a year she published the first in her series Students of Jump, and just this summer she published an anthology. She’s off to a good start.

Author site at Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/LDGibbs

Gibb’s Blog: http://ldarbygibbs.blogspot.com/

Gibb’s Goodreads Author Page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5109451.L_Darby_Gibbs

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LDarbyGibbs

I appreciate Gibbs taking time out of her busy schedule to be part of Pay It Forward. It was a pleasure meeting her.

Old Houses and Science Fiction,
Bea

Featured Author - Pat Ritter

Our next featured author, Pat Ritter, comes from the beautiful country of Australia. To be specific, he lives in the Mary Valley on Queensland, the setting for his adventure novel, The Drover.

The Drover Synopsis

Harry Williams from the age of ten years wanted to become a drover, like his father and grandfather before him. This is his life story of leaving school at ten years old, operating his first droving plant at thirteen years and fully operational at twenty-one years old. Droving is now a craft past its used by date. Harry Williams didn't think so.

Motivation for Writing

His inspiration for The Drover came from his late father-in-law, who was a drover. Pat would sit around the campfire with his father-in-law while he ‘spun the best yarns’ of his droving days. Thirty years later, Pat decided to put his history into print.

Pat Ritter has many motivations to keep him writing, and life events to reflect upon. He has been writing since 1986, and at present, has ten novels published. 'Closing The Gap' being his first novel selling 8000 copies. It was traditionally published by The Australian Lions Awareness Foundation to help parents improve communication with their teenage children.

Ten years ago, after writing and self-publishing his third novel, he made a decision to retire and write full time. Pat is passionate and wanted to be a writer no matter what the journey. At the time his wife made a statement, “How are we going to eat?” She wasn't kidding. They purchased their property at Brooloo - set in plans to build a house and retire in a bush setting. The dream of his writing world began to take shape, but then it was suddenly shattered.

Within twelve months he lost the love of his life to cancer. His angel was gone. To keep her alive, Pat wrote a tribute about his wife’s life and posted it on his website www.patritter.com.au - In Remembrance of Bub. Her story is free to download.

One morning, he thought, “What would Bub want me to do?” He could hear her say, “You wanted to retire and write - so write”. She always wanted Pat to write stories he told her about his life as a police officer, detective and his demon - alcoholism.

Finally he wrote and published, Confessions of an Alcoholic, where he introduces readers to a character Bundy Quicksilver, which in reality is Pat. The book is about Pat’s life as an alcoholic and how he overcame his demons to understand what caused him to become an alcoholic in the first place.

Pat Ritter’s reason to Self-Publish

In 2009, at the time he was self-publishing and selling the books via his website, Smashwords and Amazon decided to accept e-books from Indie Authors—Pat jumped on the bandwagon. He loves it. Not only does he have total control of what he does, he can promote his writing via social media and blogs.

Stop on by Pat’s website to check out his books.

Pat Ritter’s Website: www.patritter.com.au

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pat-Tex-Ritter-Author/107256392723750

Buy on Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/95766

Buy on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Drover-ebook/dp/B005YTGUOM/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1343363977&sr=1-1

Thank you, Pat for introducing us to your works and taking part in the Pay It Forward. I wish you the best with your writing endeavors. 

Spread the word about Pat Ritter - http://bit.ly/T377mM

History and Adventure,

Bea

Featured Author – Kaamil Garyson

Today I’m excited to introduce to you, Kaamil Garyson. He’s from Atlanta, Georgia and is a self-published paranormal and dark drama author. So for all you paranormal and dark drama fans out there, stick around with the rest of us and learn about Kaamil.

Kaamil Garyson is a self-proclaimed workaholic. He normally puts in 16 to 18-hour days writing, studying, and networking. You can tell by looking at his picture that he’s all about getting the job done. He is a student of the game who offers a plethora of free short stories, poems, and screenplays on his blog http://sinistreproseonline.biz. This is a great site, so please stop on by and find out more about Kaamil. He is also forming an author services website called Authors of the Free World that will be launching soon http://freeworldauthors.com.

Kaamil’s Motivation for writing Nemesis

Nemesis is a paranormal story of the feminist movement, demonic influence, and a selfless Soldier's love and perseverance. As a Wounded Warrior, Kaamil initially wanted to write a memoir of his experiences in Iraq after serving two tours. However, his PTSD made it too difficult to write of his most harrowing moments, particularly the night an IED blast changed his life and military career forever. After dabbling with short stories, Kaamil decided to create a character that is loosely based on his military life, both in garrison and in theater. Soon after, Kaamil learned of the religious reasons he suffers from sleep paralysis. Supposedly, it is a succubus named Lilith who targets sexually weak men. He learned of this from a self-empowered woman in his hometown. Nemesis was born...

I would like to take a moment to personally say how honored I am to have a military man as our first featured author. Thank you, Kaamil for your service and sacrifice in protecting our Freedom. It is truly appreciated.

Motivation to Self-Publish

I believe in the notion of controlling my own destiny. Before becoming a writer, I spent the better part of 12 years as a music producer, running my own indie label. I have always believed in entrepreneurship. Simply put, there is little a publisher can do for me that I can't do for myself while keeping all of my rights. The self-publishing industry is still in its infancy, and I'm stoked to be a part of a booming industry before it even reaches its fullest potential!

Nemesis is still a WIP and will be available soon as an ebook at all the major outlets (Amazon, B & N, etc.). Depending on demand, I might print-on-demand a few hard copies. 

Nemesis Synopsis

WHAT WOULD YOU DO IN A WORLD OF FEMALE DOMINANCE?

Lilith, a she-demon hell-bent on a new world of feminine rulership, seeks to devour not only US Army Soldier Dustin Chase and his infant son, but also all sexually weak human males. The selfless Dustin can protect himself and his son from Lilith, but she is not working alone.

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/KaamilGaryson

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kgaryson
Blog: http://sinistreproseonline.biz
Website: http://freeworldauthors.com

I want to thank Kaamil for his time and participation in the Pay It Forward. Keep your eyes and ears open for Kaamil Garyson’s dark paranormal, Nemesis.

Self-Published and Paranormal,

Bea

Hot Diggity Dog…New Digs!

Well...do ya love it? It was time for me to redecorate my blog. Like we do with homes, I knocked down a few walls and applied a new coat of paint, still keeping with the main color scheme. The left side bar has information about me and my books, and the right side bar has lists and a new thing I’d like to start—Pay It Forward.

I self-published my book and it’s difficult for self-published/indie authors to promote their books. “Pay It Forward” will help all involved. The more the word gets out, the more you profit…or at least receive comments that your book sounds interesting. It might even be added to someone’s TBR list.

Here’s how it will work…if anyone is interested. Send an email to denise@authordenisebaer.com with “Feature” in the subject line requesting to be featured on my blog and then I’ll request the following:

- Book cover (jpg)
- Author Photo (jpg-optional)
- Author Bio (no attachment- in the body of the email)
- Book Genre
- Synopsis
- Paragraph (no more than 150 words) about how you came to write the book, such as where the idea came from or why you wrote it (no attachment-in the body of the email)
- Paragraph (no more than 150 words) about why you decided to Self-Publish or about the Indie Publisher (no attachment-in the body of the email).
- Links to where the book can be purchased
- Links to author website, book trailer, etc.

After the author’s book is featured on my blog, they will be asked to feature an author on their blog with a link to my blog at the bottom of the post or write a review, and then send an email with a direct link to their blog post or review. I will then add it to the “Pay It Forward” list on the right side of my blog…And if the author wants to add the “Pay It Forward” list to their blog and continue on, I’ll send them the list links. We’ll see how this idea pans out.

I hope you enjoy the new digs and make sure to stop on by to read about some new and upcoming writers.

Redecorate and Feature,

Bea